Abstract
This study examines the adaptive consequences of pride in personal selling and its self-regulation with colleagues and customers. Study 1 investigates the effects of experiencing pride, where two benefits were found. First, pride increases salespersons’ performance-related motivations. Specifically, it promotes the use of adaptive selling strategies, greater effort, and self-efficacy. Second, pride positively affects organizational citizenship behaviors. Study 2 takes an emotion-process point of view and compares excessive pride (hubris) with positive pride. The results show that salespeople are capable of self-regulating the expression of these emotions differently toward colleagues and customers via anticipated feelings of fear, shame, and regret. Salespeople, in other words, are affected by their emotions, but they also are capable of controlling them to their advantage.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bagozzi, Richard P. and Jeffrey R. Edwards. 1998. “A General Approach for Representing Constructs in Organizational Research.”Organizational Research Methods 1:45–87.
—, Mahesh Gopinath, and Prashanth U. Nyer. 1999. “The Role of Emotions in Marketing.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 27 (Spring): 184–206.
—, Willem Verbeke, and Jacinto C. Gavino. 2003. “Culture Regulates the Self-Regulation of Shame and Its Effects on Performance: The Case of Salespersons in the Netherlands and the Philippines.”Journal of Applied Psychology 88 (April): 219–233.
Barret, Karen C. 1995. “A Functionalist Approach to Shame and Guilt.” InSelf-Conscious Emotions. Eds. June P. Tangney and Kurt W. Fischer. New York: Guilford, 25–63.
Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark Leary. 1995. “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation.”Psychological Bulletin 117 (May): 497–529.
—, Laura Smart, and Joseph M. Boden. 1996. “Relation of Threatened Egotism to Violence and Aggression: The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem.”Psychological Review 103 (January): 5–33.
Behrman, Douglas N. and William D. Perreault. 1984. “Measuring the Performance of Salespersons.”Journal of Business Research 10 (September): 355–370.
Bentler, Peter M. 1990. “Comparative Fit Indexes in Structural Models.”Psychological Bulletin 107 (March): 238–246.
Brody, Leslie. 1999.Gender, Emotion, and the Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brown, Steven P., William L. Cron, and John W. Slocum. 1997. “Effects of Goal-Directed Emotions on Salesperson Volitions, Behavior, and Performance: A Longitudinal Study.”Journal of Marketing 61 (January): 39–50.
— and Robert A. Peterson. 1993. “Antecedents and Consequences of Salesperson Job Satisfaction: Meta-Analysis and Assessment of Causal Effects.”Journal of Marketing Research 30 (April): 63–77.
Browne, Michael W. and Robert Cudeck. 1993. “Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit.” InTesting Structural Equation Models. Eds. Kenneth A. Bollen and Scott J. Long. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 136–162.
Carver, Charles S. and Michael F. Scheier. 1990. “Origins and Functions of Positive and Negative Affect: A Control-Process View.”Psychological Review 97 (January): 19–35.
Clark, Margaret S. and Ian Brissette. 2000. “Relationship Beliefs and Emotion: Reciprocal Effects.” InEmotions and Beliefs: How Feelings Influence Thoughts. Eds. Nico H. Frijda, Antony S. R. Manstead, and Sacha Bem. Paris: Cambridge University, 212–240.
— and Alice M. Isen. 1982. “Toward Understanding the Relationship Between Feeling States and Social Behavior.” InCognitive Social Psychology. Eds. A. H. Hastorf and Alice M. Isen. New York: Elsevier, 73–108.
Exline, Julie J. and Marci Lobel. 1999. “The Perils of Outperformance: Sensitivity About Being the Target of a Threatening Upward Comparison.”Psychological Bulletin 3 (May): 307–337.
Feldman, Daniel C. 1981. “The Multiple Socialization of Organization Members.”Academy of Management Review 6 (April): 309–318.
Fischer, Kurt W. and June P. Tangney. 1995. “Self-Conscious Emotions and the Affect Revolution: Framework and Overview.” InSelf-Conscious Emotions. Eds. June P. Tangney and Kurt W. Fischer. New York: Guilford, 3–24.
Fredrickson, Barbara L. 2001. “The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions.”American Psychologist 56 (March): 218–226.
— 2002. “Positive Emotions.” InHandbook of Positive Psychology. Eds. C. R. Snyder and S. J. Lopez. New York: Oxford University Press, 120–134.
— and Christine Branigan. 2001. “Positive Emotions.” InEmotions: Current Issues and Future Directions. Eds. Tracy J. Mayne and George A. Bonanno. New York: Guilford, 123–151.
—, Roberta A. Mancuso, Christine Branigan, and Michele M. Tugade. 2000. “The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions.”Motivation and Emotion 24 (December): 237–258.
Frijda, Nico H. 1986.The Emotions. London: Cambridge University Press.
—, Antony S. Manstead, and Sacha Bem. 2000. “The Influence of Emotions on Beliefs.” InEmotions and Beliefs: How Feelings Influence Thoughts. Eds. Nico H. Frijda, Antony S. Manstead, and Sacha Bem. Paris: Cambridge University Press, 1–9.
Gilbert, Paul. 1990. “Changes: Rank, Status, and Mood.” InOn the Move: The Psychology of Change and Transition. Eds. Shirley Fischer and Cary L. Cooper. New York: John Wiley, 33–52.
Gross, James J. 1999. “Emotion and Emotion Regulation.” InHandbook of Personality: Theory and Research. Eds. Lawrence A. Pervin and Oliver P. John. New York: Guilford, 525–552.
Harter, Susan. 1999.The Construction of the Self. New York: Guilford.
Hayward, Mathew L. and Donald C. Hambrick. 1997. “Explaining the Premiums Paid for Large Acquisitions: Evidence of CEO Hubris.”Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (March): 103–127.
Hofstede, Geert. 2001.Culture’s Consequences. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Isen, Alice M., Kimberly A. Daubman, and Gary P. Nowicki. 1987. “Positive Affect Facilitates Creative Problem Solving.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52 (June): 1122–1131.
Jöreskog, Karl G. and Dag Sörbom. 1996.LISREL8 User’s Reference Guide. Chicago: Scientific Software.
Katz, Jack. 1999.How Emotions Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Katzenbach, Jon R. and Jason A. Santamaria. 1998. “Firing up the Frontline.”Harvard Business Review 77 (May–June): 107–117.
Kay Ash, Mary. 1995.You Can Have It All. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.
Keltner, Dacher and Jonathan Haidt. 1999. “Social Functions of Emotions at Four Levels of Analysis.”Cognition and Emotion 13 (September): 505–521.
Kitayama, Shinobu, Hazel R. Markus, and Hisaya Matsumoto. 1995. “Culture, Self, and Emotions: A Cultural Perspective on Self-Conscious Emotions.” InSelf-Conscious Emotions. Eds. June P. Tangney and Kurt W. Fischer. New York: Guilford, 439–464.
Kroll, Mark J., Leslie A. Toombs, and Peter Wright. 2000. “Napoleon’s Tragic March Home From Moscow: Lessons in Hubris.”Academy of Management Executive 14 (February): 117–128.
Lazarus, Richard S. 1991.Emotion and Adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.
— and Bernice N. Lazarus. 1994.Passion and Reason. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, Michael. 2000. “Self-Conscious Emotions: Embarrassment, Pride, Shame, and Guilt.” InHandbook of Emotions, 2d ed. Eds. Michael Lewis and J. M. Haviland-Jones. New York: Guilford, 623–636.
MacKenzie, Scott B., Philip M. Podsakoff, and Richard Fetter. 1991. “Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Objective Productivity as Determinants of Managerial Evaluations of Salespersons’ Performance.”Organizational Behavior and Human Decisions Processes 50 (October): 123–150.
Marsh, Herbert, John R. Balla, and Kit-Tai Hau. 1996. “An Evaluation of Incremental Fit Indices: A Clarification of Mathematical and Empirical Properties.” InAdvanced Structural Equation Modeling: Issues and Techniques. Eds. George A. Marcoulides and Randall E. Schumacker. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 315–353.
McAllister, Daniel J. 1995. “Affect-and Cognition-Based Trust as Foundations for Interpersonal Cooperation in Organizations.”Academy of Management Journal 38 (February): 24–59.
Meindl, James R., Sanford B. Ehrlich, and Janet M. Dukerich. 1985. “The Romance of Leadership.”Administrative Science Quarterly 30 (March): 78–102.
Morris, J. Andrew and Daniel C. Feldman. 1996. “The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional Labor.”Academy of Management Review 21 (October): 986–1010.
Motowidlo, Stephan J. and James R. Van Scotter. 1994. “Evidence That Task Performance Should Be Distinguished From Contextual Performance.”Journal of Applied Psychology 79 (August): 475–480.
Nahapiet, Janine E. and Sumantra Ghoshal. 1998. “Social Capital, Intellectual Capital and the Organizational Advantage.”Academy of Management Review 23 (April): 242–266.
Oatley, Keith. 1992.Best Laid Schemes: The Psychology of Emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Organ, Dennis W. and Julie B. Paine. 1999. “A New Kind of Performance for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Recent Contributions to the Study of Organizational Citizenship Behavior.” InInternational Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol 14. Eds. Cary L. Cooper and Ivan T. Robertson. New York: John Wiley, 337–368.
Parkinson, Brian. 1995.Ideas and Realities of Emotion. London and New York: Routledge.
— and Antony S. R. Manstead. 1992. “Appraisal as a Cause of Emotion.” InReview of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 13. Ed. Margaret S. Clark. New York: Russell Sage, 122–149.
Robinson, Michael D. and Gerald L. Clore. 2001. “Simulation, Scenarios, and Emotional Appraisal: Testing the Convergence of Real and Imagined Reactions to Emotional Stimuli.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27 (Novenber): 1520–1532.
Roseman, Ira J. 1991. “Appraisal Determinants of Discrete Emotions.”Cognition and Emotion 5 (May): 161–200.
Ruth, Julie A., Frederic F. Brunel, and Cele C. Otnes. 2002. “Linking Thoughts to Feelings: Investigating Cognitive Appraisals and Consumption Emotions in a Mixed-Emotions Context.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 30 (Winter): 44–58.
Saarni, Carolyn. 1999.The Development of Emotional Competence. New York: Guilford.
Salovey, Peter, Brian T. Bedell, Jerusha B. Detweiler, and John D. Mayer. 2000. “Current Directions in Emotional Intelligence Research.” InHandbook of Emotions, 2d ed. Eds. Michael Lewis and Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones. New York: Guilford, 504–520.
Schwarz, Norbert and Herbert Bless. 1991. “Happy and Mindless, but Sad and Smart? The Impact of Affective States on Analytic Reasoning.” InEmotion and Social Judgement. Ed. Joseph P. Forgas. Oxford, UK: Pergamon, 55–71.
Seligman, Martin E. P. 2002. “Positive Psychology, Positive Prevention, and Positive Therapy.” InHandbook of Positive Psychology. Eds. C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez. New York: Oxford University, 3–12.
Singh, Jagdip, Jerry R. Goolsby, and Gary K. Rhoads. 1994. “Behavioral and Psychological Consequences of Boundary Spanning Burnout for Customer Service Representatives.”Journal of Marketing Research 31 (November): 558–569.
Skinner, Ellen A. 1999. “Action Regulation, Coping, and Development.” InAction and Self-Development: Theory and Research Through the Life Span. Eds. Jochen Brandtstadter and Richard M. Lerner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 465–504.
Smith, Richard H., Gerrod W. Parrott, Edward F. Diener, Rick H. Hoyle, and Sung H. Kim. 1999. “Dispositional Envy.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 (August): 1007–1020.
Soldow, Gary F. and Gloria P. Thomas. 1984. “Relational Communication: Form Versus Content in the Sales Interaction.”Journal of Marketing 48 (Winter): 84–93.
Spiro, Rosann L. and Barton A. Weitz. 1990. “Adaptive Selling: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Nomological Validity.”Journal of Marketing Research 27 (February): 61–69.
Sujan, Harish. 1999. “Optimism and Street-Smarts: Identifying and Improving Salesperson Intelligence.”Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management 19 (Summer): 17–33.
—, Barton A. Weitz, and Nirmalya Kumar. 1994. “Learning Orientation, Working Smart, and Effective Selling.”Journal of Marketing 58 (July): 39–52.
Szymanski, David M. and Gilbert A. Churchill. 1990. “Client Evaluation Cues: A Comparison of Successful and Unsuccessful Salespeople.”Journal of Marketing Research 27 (May): 162–174.
Tangney, June P. 1999. “The Self-Conscious Emotions: Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment and Pride.” InHandbook of Cognition and Emotion. Eds. Tim Dalgleish and Mick J. Power. New York: John Wiley, 541–568.
— and Kurt W. Fischer. 1995.Self-Conscious Emotions. New York: Guilford.
Verbeke, Willem and Richard P. Bagozzi. 2000. “Sales Call Anxiety: Exploring What It Means When Fear Rules a Sales Encounter.”Journal of Marketing 64 (July): 88–101.
— and-—. 2002. “A Situational Analysis on How Salespeople Experience and Cope With Shame and Embarrassment.”Psychology and Marketing 19 (September): 713–741.
— and-—. 2003. “Exploring the Role of Self-and Customer-Provoked Embarrassment in Personal Selling.”International Journal of Research in Marketing 20 (September): 233–258.
Waldron, Vincent R. 2000. “Relational Experiences and Emotion at Work.” InEmotion in Organizations, 2d ed. Ed. Stephen Fineman. London: Sage, 64–82.
Weiner, Bernard. 1992.Human Motivation: Metaphors, Theories, and Research. London: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Willem Verbeke (verbeke@few.eur.nl) is a chaired professor of sales and account management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His research has appeared in a number of academic journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Management, theJournal of Organizational Behavior, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His area of research interests includes personal selling, sales management, emotions and emotion regulation, social capital, and knowledge management.
Frank Belschak (belschak@few.eur.nl) is an assistant professor of marketing and organizational behavior at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from the University of Cologne in Germany. His current research interests include emotions and emotion regulation in organizations and across cultures, as well as social capital and networks.
Richard P. Bagozzi (bagozzi@rice.edu) is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management in the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and a professor of psychology at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He conducts research on human emotions, the theory of action, goal setting and goal striving, and structural equation methods.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Verbeke, W., Belschak, F. & Bagozzi, R.P. The adaptive consequences of pride in personal selling. JAMS 32, 386–402 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070304267105
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070304267105